ID-Ten-T Computer Problem

While still employed at the radio station I had a serious problem with our computers in the newsroom. For some reason, they’d all frozen and no amount of ‘rebooting’ worked to solved the situation.

At 1:36 in the morning, I called our corporate ‘IT Specialist.’

It was obvious he was not happy about having to drag himself from his warm bed and into a heavy snowfall to fix the malfunctioning system. It took him less than 15 minutes to get everything online and operating again.

I thanked him and asked, “So, what was the problem?”

As he pulled his coat on he answered, “It was an ID-ten-T problem.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks again, for fixing it.”

Later, as I wrote an email to the Program and News Directors, letting each know about the problem, I came to realize why I disliked him so much: there, in Ariel font at 12 pica was the word: “ID10T.”